


My Reason to Live

by PonderingFool



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Being Lancer is suffering, Depression, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Part Action/Adventure, Part character study, Romance, Somewhat Unhealthy Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-23 22:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12518268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PonderingFool/pseuds/PonderingFool
Summary: Goetia has been defeated and the continuity of human history restored, but not without cost; with Solomon's sacrifice and Ritsuka left comatose from injuries, the Chaldea Security Organisation has been left devastated and I'll equipped to deal with the newly-emerged singularity. But when Ritsuka is kidnapped and stolen away into the singularity, they're left with no choice but to venture into Israel and fend off the Demonic Invasion of the Holy Lands.





	My Reason to Live

It was much too somber at Chaldea.

Humanity's destruction had been averted, they'd overcome what should've been impossible odds, fixed nine singularities, conquered everything from Divine Spirits, to Demon Gods, and even two Beasts of Calamity, the personifications of the Evils of Man themselves. Deeds and glory worthy of the greatest of Heroic Spirits.

But despite it all, the air of defeat pervaded the halls.

Archer wasn't afraid to admit he hadn't been all that fond of Romani Archaman; his cowardly nature and...idiosyncrasies had been grating at times, especially when he and others had been worn down from fighting the enemies they'd encountered in the singularities. But he had to admit, it just wasn't the same with him around. Not to say that his experience was a universal one, many servants honoured his sacrifice without particularly caring for the man, and quite a few of the more...morally reprehensible servants were outright pleased over his death, though none dared voice that thought out-loud.

That wasn't the worst it though.

Fujimaru Ritsuka was rather mediocre as a mage in the and thrust into a situation she was entirely unprepared for with almost no chance of success. But what she lacked in aptitude as a traditional magus she made up for in her ability as a master. It seemed that no matter how vile, egotistical, or simply strange the servant's behaviour was, she could endear themselves to them and get them to co-operate with the others with minimal issues. She was the proverbial glue that held them together and without her, Archer had no doubt in his mind the Grand Order would've failed.

But that was a double-edged sword; without her, the ability of the servants to work with each other was severely hampered, and some were just outright incapable of doing so. With her comatose due to the injuries she sustained from Goetia and Solomon dead, everything had swiftly gone to hell. Given the solemn atmosphere of Chaldea, several servants with already grating attitudes had become nearly intolerable without Ritsuka as a mitigating influence, with things coming to a head three days ago when Artoria had nearly outright attacked Bluebeard. Other servants like Kiyohime, Nightingale, and the like were demanding access to Ritsuka for their own reasons, which  _absolutely_ couldn't be allowed to occur in her state, necessitating other servants to stand guard over her at all hours of the day.

Archer had thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, but just yesterday another singularity had come into existence; Israel, 0000 AD, only a few months before the birth of Jesus Christ himself, and everything promptly went to hell. On one side you had the people and servants insisting that the singularity wasn't tied to Goetia's plot and thus wasn't as dangerous, that venturing into the singularity without Ritsuka was impractical and dangerous, and that Ritsuka had not yet passed the normal two-to-four weeks length of a coma and thus it would be more practical to wait and see if she recovered before adopting such drastic measures, and on the other side you had the people and servants insisting that even if Goetia had been defeated, singularities nevertheless needed to be stamped out as soon as possible and that a singularity occurring right before the birth of Jesus Christ would be capable of dealing such incalculable damage to human history that no delay could be afforded.

But Archer didn't want to think about that right now; he'd finished doing the laundry and helping make lunch for the servants that liked to eat, so now it was time to change Ritsuka's IV solution.

Paying no mind to the scuffle between Kiyohime and Lancelot as the latter rather easily held Kiyohime back from her near-hourly attempt to enter the room, Archer quickly entered the room and, paying no mind to Tristan under the assumption that he was  _probably_ awake despite all appearances and got to work.

To see someone normally so cheerful and full of life laid low in this way, ghastly pale, heavily bandaged, and wasting away from the lack of activity should've been a difficult sight, but Archer had seen much worse. Besides, Ritsuka was strong and Archer was certain she would make a full recovery.

But then he felt it; it was like the rush of mana unique to that of a Rayshift, but it felt...different somehow, but he wasn't knowledgeable enough of magecraft to pinpoint the exact difference. Not to mention that any Rayshifts would've been organised well in advance and announced over the PA system for an entire hour leading up to it.

Wordlessly and with a bad gut-feeling, Archer manifested Kanshou and Bakuya as Tristan gripped the Failnaught tightly, both Archers prepared for a fight.

* * *

_"Emergency! Emergency! Unknown enemy servants and several demons have manifested in the central control room! All personnel report to-"_

Scáthach could count the number of times she'd felt true, genuine fear in the time since she'd become immortal on one hand, and all of them involved her master. First Babylonia, then the Temple of Solomon, and now this. Tearing through the halls in her haste to get to the medical wing, barely noticing that the demons she cut down were nothing alike any demon she'd seen in her life and were more akin to the mismatched appearance typical of a chimera.

But it was all for naught, for as soon as she arrived in the medical wing and all but kicked down the door, all she found was Kiyohime, Lancelot, Tristan, and Emiya laid out on the ground, with her beloved Ritsuka nowhere to be found.

Whatever questions would've warranted asking; where the demons and servants had come from, why they were here, why they weren't actually killing anyone, why they'd taken Ritsuka, all of it was washed away in a wave of raw, uncontrollable fury. Scáthach made her way to the central control room, ruthlessly cutting down any demon she came across and not caring that they'd seemed to have become completely docile or that no-one seemed to have been killed in the attack, not stopping in her rampage until she reached the central control room.

But she was too late, only a split second after she entered the room she saw the enemy servants vanish as suddenly as they'd appeared, taking Ritsuka with them, to who-knows-where they'd come from. She didn't know how or why they'd came or why they'd taken Ritsuka, but Scáthach did no one thing; whoever they were, they would pay with their  _lives_ for this...

* * *

"Nothing really, I just thought you'd want to heal her completely is all."

"I do, but...it's better to keep her like this. For now at least."

It was difficult to pay attention to the voices; between the complete exhaustion, the physical weakness, and the migraine, Ritsuka was finding it difficult to pay attention to anything really. Even opening her eyes was too much of an effort in her current state, but the second voice sounded somewhat familiar and compelled her to try and stay awake.

"Ah, you're awake senpai. How are you feeling?"

Ah, so it was Mashu. There was no mistaking it. But there was something about the tone of her voice that was a little...off somehow, had something bad happened.

"No, senpai. You need your rest. Please try to relax."

 Ritsuka would've objected, but she was suddenly overcome by an inexplicable surge of exhaustion. If she weren't in such an awful state, she might've noticed that this new exhaustion was magically-induced, but she was much too tired and too weak to notice or object and thus, swiftly fell asleep.

"That's right senpai, rest. I won't let anyone hurt you, no matter the cost..."


End file.
